The Girl Who Lived
by S-Drama-Queen-17
Summary: Tara Foster is a student at the Salem Witches Institute in Massachusetts, daydreaming about meeting Harry Potter. But what circumstances could possibly bring these two together? They have nothing in common except a birthday and a power that could defeat V
1. The Dream

Chapter 1  
  
The Dream  
  
"Tara, what the heck are you doing?" Natalie Carlton asked a diminutive senior girl staring out the window.  
  
"Oh, um.nothing," Tara Foster answered, quickly looking away.  
  
"It has something to do with Harry Potter, doesn't it?" Natalie pressed.  
  
Tara sighed. "Yeah. I was just thinking how totally awesome it could be to meet him."  
  
Natalie sat on Tara's bed next to her best friend. "Tara, you don't even know the guy. He lives in England, across the ocean. Besides, no one over here even talks about him anymore, anyway. But they are talking about the Weird Sisters concert tomorrow night. I heard that Christina Garza has two extra tickets. Do you want to go?"  
  
"Not really," Tara sighed. "And I doubt that Christina would give them to me. I am the biggest loser in school, you know."  
  
"No, you're not," Natalie said automatically.  
  
"Natalie, you're my only friend. What does that say to you?"  
  
"At least you have one friend," Natalie pointed out. "Now, come on, get Harry what's-his-name out of your head and let's go find Christina."  
  
Tara nodded reluctantly, looked out at the school grounds, made a silent wish, and followed Natalie out the door.  
  
The next night.  
  
Tara gave a feeble cough. "No, seriously, Natalie, I really am sick."  
  
Natalie raised an eyebrow at her best friend, who was lying in bed with the covers pulled up over her chin. "You were fine this morning."  
  
"It was probably something I ate for lunch," Tara pressed, looking at Natalie with huge, pleading green eyes. "You go on to the concert without me."  
  
"Tara, I ate everything you did for lunch."  
  
"No, you didn't eat eggs."  
  
Natalie sighed in exasperation. "Neither did you!"  
  
"Sure I did. You.weren't looking." It was a terrible excuse and both of them knew it. Still, Natalie shuffled toward the door.  
  
"You sure you'll be all right?"  
  
"Yeah. Have fun. Give someone else the ticket. Believe me, I don't feel like going." And this was the truth.  
  
Natalie cast a last look at Tara and left.  
  
Tara waited until the sound of Natalie's footsteps faded down the hallway, and then she scrambled out of bed and made a beeline for her desk. She thrust open a drawer so hard that it came out of the desk entirely and all the contents spilled out on the floor. She didn't bother to pick them up, though; she grabbed a leather-bound journal and opened it up.  
  
She had bought it from a thrift shop. It was a Harry Potter Fan Club journal. Teenage wizards from all over the world could correspond with each other with it. And right now she had an ongoing message correspondence with a girl who actually went to Hogwarts.  
  
"Hello? Natalie? It's me, Tara. Are you there?"  
  
"Yes," came the reply. "How are you?"  
  
"Good, I'm good. How's Harry?"  
  
Deep inside somewhere herself, Tara felt ashamed. She was, in essence, spying on her hero through a girl three years younger than herself (and Harry). And one with the same name as her best friend, who was out at a Weird Sisters concert right then, worrying about Tara.  
  
"He's good, I guess. I saw him sitting in the common room today, and I thought, 'Natalie McDonald, you go over there and introduce yourself. Then you can tell Tara about it.' But Hermione Granger walked up to him and started talking about some idiotic Defense Against the Dark Arts assignment."  
  
The seventeen-year-old-girl sat back in her chair and breathed heavily. Although Harry hadn't really had a girlfriend since his fifth year (Cho Chang, of whom many pictures had been received and immediately destroyed), Tara was jealous beyond belief of one Hermione Granger. Natalie had repeatedly informed her that the two weren't an item, but Tara knew that it was only a matter of time.  
  
"So you can't really tell what he's up to?" Tara wrote, her question mark drooping a little.  
  
"Not really. I'm sorry, Tara."  
  
"It isn't your fault, Natalie. Tomorrow night okay with you?"  
  
"All right then. Talk to you tomorrow."  
  
Tara bitterly snapped the book shut and began to gather up her spilled belongings. If only Hermione Granger had a Harry Potter Fan Club journal. Then Tara would have all the inside scoop.  
  
After a few more hours of fantasizing, dreaming, and fervent wishing, all of which involved Harry Potter in some way, shape, or form, Tara was feeling decidedly sleepy. She crawled back into bed, wondered vaguely if Natalie was having fun at the Weird Sisters concert, and fell asleep.  
  
She was on a skeletal horse-like creature, galloping through a dense, dark forest. Then.ahead, light! She reached the edge of the forest and saw a hut nearby.  
  
There was a figure moving toward her. He was much taller than she was, but he looked the same age. He had a mass of untidy black hair, glasses, and a mark on his forehead indistinguishable at this distance.  
  
Their eyes met, and hers burned. She clamped a hand over them, squinting between her fingers at the boy. He was clutching at the mark beneath his bangs, collapsing on the ground. Then, all of a sudden, he stood up and began to follow the horse, which had begun to move.  
  
They weaved their way into the forest, and, after what seemed like hours, they found their way out. The boy collapsed on the ground once more, and Tara slid sideways off her winged creature, rolled over in the air, and landed.  
  
On her bedroom floor.  
  
Her eyes snapped open, cold sweat running all over her face. What just happened? she thought frantically  
  
Tara sat up slowly, but she dropped back down the ground when she saw something move on the other side. Someone-or something-was over there. Although her heart was pounding wildly on the floor and whatever was over there was surely able to hear it, she lay on her stomach as still as she could, waiting.  
  
After thirty seconds of silence except for two sets of heavy breathing, Tara dared to peek under the bed. Two feet stood there, all by themselves. Then, slowly, with almost no movement detected, they moved upward and disappeared.  
  
Tara jerked her head up. Staring back at her were two bright green eyes under a lightning-shaped scar!  
  
Their owner yelled.  
  
Tara screamed.  
  
"Who's there?" Natalie shrieked.  
  
"H-Harry?" another voice asked sleepily.  
  
The light flicked on. Tara and the boy sprawled across her bed looked around at Natalie, who was quaking in her furry bunny slippers.  
  
"Who are you? Harry, where are we?" the sleepy voice asked. Another head appeared (from behind Natalie's bed this time), and it was covered by a mass of bushy brown hair.  
  
"Oh, my gosh," Tara breathed. "You're Harry Potter and Hermione Granger!"  
  
"And.who are you?" Harry inquired.  
  
Tara seethed with bitter disappointment. What had she expected him to do, look at her and swoon?  
  
"I don't care who you are, but how'd you get here?" Natalie demanded, brandishing her wand inches from Harry's nose. He stared cross-eyed at it.  
  
"I have no clue," Harry replied, turning his head to look at Hermione. "Hermione-ow!"  
  
His cheek had brushed the tip of Natalie's wand, which left a Galleon-sized welt on his face.  
  
"Oh, my gosh, I am so sorry," Natalie apologized, quickly withdrawing her wand. Tara reached out with her own wand to heal the wound, but Hermione got there first.  
  
"Lewelt," she pronounced carefully. The mark disappeared.  
  
Harry placed himself carefully on Tara's bed. "I was having the strangest dream. I was out walking on the grounds, and I see this girl on a thestral. Right then, I feel really weak and fall on the ground. But then, it's like that never happened. I follow the girl and the thestral through the forest and then I collapse again, and the dream ended, and I woke up here."  
  
"That wasn't a dream, Harry," Hermione spoke up. "You started sleepwalking in the dormitory, and Ron came to get me, and we followed you all the way through the forest."  
  
"Wait a minute. Both you and Ron followed me?"  
  
Hermione nodded.  
  
"Then where's Ron?"  
  
Two roars sounded from down the hall, answering Harry's question. All four of them dashed out the door to the hallway, where two seventeen-year-old boys were scooting out a nearby doorway, scared out of their wits.  
  
"Harry!" the nearest cried out, spotting the foursome. "Where are we? And who are they?"  
  
Tara suddenly realized that Harry didn't even know her name. But before she could speak, the other boy bellowed like an angry rhino.  
  
"Hello? I'm the one who should be asking you that! You just drop into my room like you own the place, and-"  
  
"Believe me, I could think of a billion other places I would have rather dropped into!" the first one exclaimed, his eyes shining with anxiety beneath a mop of red hair.  
  
"Look, I'm Tara Foster, this is Natalie Carlton, and he's Josh Prior."  
  
"Don't give my name to these strangers!" Josh roared.  
  
"Josh, do you know who this is? Harry Potter!"  
  
Josh blinked stupidly.  
  
"Obviously your fame didn't survive the trip overseas," Hermione whispered to Harry.  
  
"Defeated You-Know-Who?" Tara said.  
  
Natalie cleared her throat. "Tara, what did we talk about? It's okay to say Voldemort's name."  
  
Both Tara and Ron inhaled sharply.  
  
"TARA! It's no big DEAL!" Natalie shrieked.  
  
"Oh, yeah, I remember you!" Josh interrupted. "Aren't you British? And don't you go to Hogwarts?"  
  
"Yes, I do," Harry replied.  
  
"Then why are you here?"  
  
"We're still trying to figure that out," Hermione cut in, looking at Harry.  
  
"I think we should go to the Salem Witches," Tara suggested. 


	2. The Salem Witches

Chapter 2  
  
The Salem Witches  
  
Natalie and Josh stared at her in disbelief, the other three in complete confusion.  
  
"Are you insane?" Josh cried.  
  
"Nobody wakes the Salem Witches in the middle of the night, nobody!" Natalie agreed.  
  
"I think we have an urgent matter here, don't you?" Tara told them.  
  
"Hang on, who're the Si—the So—the Se—the Witches?" Ron asked.  
  
"The Salem Witches. You know, Salem, where we are now?" Tara offered. This only made Ron more confused.  
  
"Where's Salem?" he asked.  
  
"Ron, it's in America," Hermione told him exasperatedly.  
  
Ron blanched. "How'd we get all the way across the ocean?"  
  
"That's why we're going to the Salem Witches!" Tara told them.  
  
Ron obliged, as did Harry and Hermione, and the six of them crept through the maze of hallways to the Witches' room. When they got there, no one seemed to want to touch the door. Tara hesitantly rapped on it with her knuckles.  
  
A raspy voice croaked, "Who disturbs the resting of the Salem Witches?"  
  
"Please, ma'am, or, um, ma'ams, it's an emergency," Tara squeaked.  
  
"Come in," a higher-pitched wheezy voice said.  
  
"But be warned," the third and last voice, sounding like nails on a chalkboard, said ominously. "If it is not the most urgent of matters, you shall be in violation of our much-needed rest."  
  
All the others looked ready to run at this, but Tara gave them a look as creepy as any of the Witches' voices, and they all followed her inside.  
  
Three beds lined the opposite wall. As one, all three witches sat up in bed, looking...well...old. And they all looked the same.  
  
"Who is it? Ah, young Tara Foster and company."  
  
"And a few strangers."  
  
"What is it you want?"  
  
"Er—Professor, er..."  
  
"We are—"  
  
"—the Salem—"  
  
"—Witches, boy," they said to Harry.  
  
"Yes, um, I'm Harry Potter."  
  
The three witches looked pleased.  
  
"Ah, Mr. Potter."  
  
"What has brought you here to visit—"  
  
"—especially in the middle of the night?"  
  
"We were hoping you could answer that," Natalie squeaked, speaking for the first time.  
  
"Yes, Harry was sleepwalking out of Hogwarts and me and Ron followed him. I'm Hermione Granger."  
  
"Ron Weasley," Ron choked.  
  
"Charmed—"  
  
"—I'm—"  
  
"—sure."  
  
"And Ron, or whatever his name is, showed up in my room!" Josh cried angrily, having conveniently forgotten his fear of the Witches in the night.  
  
"Yes, and Harry was on the other side of my bed, and Hermione was next to Natalie's," Tara offered.  
  
"Hmm."  
  
"Yes."  
  
"Most interesting."  
  
"So...what do you make of it?" Ron inquired uneasily. It didn't seem like the Salem Witches were getting the whole picture.  
  
"We'll need—"  
  
"—to contact—"  
  
"—Dumbledore."  
  
The Hogwarts trio and Tara breathed a sigh of relief.  
  
"Who's Dumbledore?" Natalie and Josh chorused.  
  
"Our headmaster," Ron answered.  
  
"Please sit over there," one of the Witches said, pointing at chairs on another wall.  
  
"And feel free to talk."  
  
"We won't be able to hear you."  
  
The six of them sat nervously. The Witches grasped each other's hands and began to hum, but the tune was haunting and certainly not melodious. When they stopped, they began talking, and Tara knew that Dumbledore had to be doing the same thing.  
  
Harry was sitting on one end with Hermione, and then Natalie and Josh, and Tara, and finally Ron. Josh was talking to Natalie and paying no attention to Tara, so Tara took the opportunity to gaze dreamily at him like she had on so many other occasions.  
  
Ron, feeling very left out, poked Tara hard in the back. "Ow!" she said softly, not taking her eyes off Josh. Ron waved his hand in front of her face. "Wha—Oh, sorry, did you say something?"  
  
"Not yet," Ron told her. "You fancy him?"  
  
"What?"  
  
"Do you fancy him?" Ron repeated.  
  
"Oh, you mean, like, like him?"  
  
"Yeah."  
  
Tara sighed. "Let's just put it this way. We definitely weren't meant for each other."  
  
"What happened?"  
  
"What do you mean?"  
  
"What happened between you two?"  
  
"Nothing."  
  
"Nothing?"  
  
"He pretends I don't exist."  
  
"Oh."  
  
Silence.  
  
"What about you?" Tara spoke up.  
  
"What about me?"  
  
"I know from a very reliable source that you exhibit signs of a crush toward her." Tara motioned her head toward Hermione, who was talking to Harry.  
  
Ron's eyes narrowed. "Who told you that?"  
  
"Natalie McDonald."  
  
"Really. You know her?"  
  
"Know her, have had conversation with her, talk to her daily through my Harry Potter Fan Club journal, it's all the same."  
  
"They have Harry Potter Fan Club journals?"  
  
"Yeah." Tara looked ashamed.  
  
"So you have your real-life crush and your celebrity crush."  
  
"Guess I'm busted."  
  
Ron looked puzzled but didn't ask.  
  
"Back to the topic at hand...you and Hermione?"  
  
"Oh, that. Well, I guess I'm beginning to come to terms with the fact that she's madly in love with Harry," Ron answered sarcastically.  
  
"Yeah, the picture Natalie painted of Harry's life kind of gave me that impression, too."  
  
More awkward silence.  
  
"No, no, Dumbledore, I suspect your first theory was correct," one of the witches said loudly. Everyone turned to look.  
  
"Yes, this has nothing to do with Voldemort," the second one agreed. Ron and Tara cringed.  
  
"Or rather, the reason they're here isn't because he sent them," the last one said.  
  
"Tara and Harry!"  
  
"Come here—"  
  
"—now."  
  
Tara and Harry nervously stood up and approached the three aged witches, who gave no impression that they knew the two had moved until they said together, "Sit down."  
  
They obeyed.  
  
"Complete the circle, children," the witches said simultaneously.  
  
Harry and Tara took each other's hands and each grabbed a hand of each witch at the end. Immediately, they could hear Dumbledore.  
  
"Harry? Miss Foster? Are you there?"  
  
"Yes, Professor Dumbledore," Harry answered.  
  
"Miss Foster?"  
  
"Um...yessir."  
  
"Good."  
  
"Albus, please proceed, the witches asked politely.  
  
"Professor what will you do?" Harry inquired.  
  
"Ah, Harry, this event must be a result of a mystic connection between you and Miss Foster. I must search your heads for this connection. Now, some memories that have had some impact on your life may show up during this procedure if you don't clear your head, and you'll be seeing each other's memories, too. Now, if you want to share memories, so be it. Are you ready?"  
  
"No," Tara whimpered.  
  
"Go!"  
  
A rush of emotions flooded Tara's chest, some of them that she never felt before. Memories flashed before her eyes in rapid succession. A baby with tufts of brown hair in a basket was being placed on the doorstep of a large building. A little girl was being teased incessantly for being small. A rather large woman was picking up the same girl two years later. A different crowd of children was ignoring that little girl's pleas to join in the game they were playing. An eleven-year-old was tearing open an envelope, eager hands snatching up the acceptance letter within. A blonde boy was ignoring a fourteen-year-old girl (that one showed up repeatedly). A fifteen-year-old girl was purchasing a Harry Potter Fan Club journal. That same girl, over two years later, was talking to a redheaded someone.  
  
Tara shook her head, and the vivid, flashing pictures changed. A shadowy figure pointed a wand at a tall, slender, red-haired woman. An old man with a long, silvery beard was placing a baby on the doorstep of a house while a large man and a frail-looking woman looked on. A large child held down a small boy with one hand and hit him with the other. A boy with decidedly unruly hair was on a roof, looking down at five very angry adults. That boy was jumping up and down in a shower of enveloped as a large, angry man tried to snatch as many as he could from the boy. The same boy ran through a brick wall, boarded a train, and met a boy with red, red hair and a girl with a mass of bushy brown tresses. He was looking through a mirror while a mad two-faced man looked daggers at him. He stuck a fang in a diary and a sixteen-year-old boy disappeared. He helped a gaunt man onto a hippogriff and watched as they flew away. He saw a handsome boy keel over in a graveyard. That same gaunt, skinny man fell through a dark, eerie veil. The boy was running, running after a brown-haired girl, who seemed to be in a trance, trying to stop her from approaching eminent death. He was following a girl on a thestral, and then he was on the other side of her bed...  
  
Then, a light. A blinding white light, surrounded by a restless darkness. Tara could see Harry at the far end of the light; the beam seemed to be only between their eyes. Harry's eyes had a set determined look about them. Tara could feel her eyes crumpling into the look they wore when people teased her, or Josh didn't notice her. It was how she felt most often.  
  
Then it ended.  
  
Tara felt like an angry bee was buzzing around in her head as she heard Dumbledore speak. "Ah. Most interesting, indeed."  
  
"See, Dumbledore?"  
  
"You should listen to us."  
  
"We told you."  
  
"Tara, Harry, you share the same birthday, July 31, 1980."  
  
"That's it?" Tara asked incredulously. All that for Dumbledore to tell them they shared a birthday? She could've asked Harry without getting all dizzy and confused.  
  
"And you parents died on the same day, same moment."  
  
Well, that was a shocker.  
  
"And you two are connected by an ancient, mysterious magical power."  
  
Tara's mind was reeling. Too much information in such a small space of time! Next to her, Harry tried and failed to swallow.  
  
"Does that mean—"  
  
"Yes, Harry. It might not be you to kill Voldemort. It might be Miss Foster."  
  
Tara tried to regain her breath. She didn't want to kill anyone! She was content with her normal, invisible existence. Well, that would be not exactly truthful.  
  
"So I have decided to let Mr. Potter, Mr. Weasley, and Miss Granger remain at the Institute until the purpose for this visit has been fulfilled."  
  
"What?" Harry choked.  
  
"I must go now. Goodbye." Dumbledore's voice seemed to echo.  
  
"No, wait!" Tara cried. But the connection had been broken, and Tara could suddenly feel eight pairs of eyes boring holes in her.  
  
"You may leave, children."  
  
"Take care of yourselves."  
  
"And take care, Tara Foster."  
  
Ron shut the door behind them.  
  
"You know, they're sort of like Dumbledore themselves," Harry said before anyone had a chance to say anything.  
  
"In female form," Hermione agreed.  
  
"And there's three of them!" Ron shuddered. "How can you stand them?"  
  
Natalie, however, wasn't getting the hint that neither Tara nor Harry wanted to talk about it. "Yeah, okay, but what happened?"  
  
Ron shot Tara a look, while Hermione did the same to Harry.  
  
Tara said, "Well...it was weird."  
  
"You can say that again," Josh interrupted. "You and Harry were yelling at the top of your lungs."  
  
"We were?" Harry said.  
  
"Yes," Hermione admitted. "Harry, you were saying something about Cedric, and Tara, you were yelling, 'Let me play!'"  
  
Tara reddened. That must have been during the memory of her brothers and sister all ignoring her when she wanted to play with them.  
  
"Tara," Harry said, " can you tell me what was going on during your memories?"  
  
Tara sighed. "Sure. Tell me which ones."  
  
"The first one."  
  
"I guess that was me right after my parents died, when they left me at the orphanage."  
  
"How did your parents die?" Ron asked.  
  
"They...they drowned. Someone pushed them off a pier. No one knows who."  
  
"Ah," Ron said uncomfortably. There was an awkward pause.  
  
"How about the one with all the kids picking on you?" Harry continued quickly.  
  
"That was at the orphanage. Everyone made fun of me for being so small."  
  
"And that lady?"  
  
"She is my adoptive mother."  
  
"Oh. And the other kids?"  
  
"My adopted siblings. I had the same problem with them as I did with the ones at the orphanage."  
  
"And I bet the one with the letter was—"  
  
"—my acceptance letter to the Institute," she finished for him.  
  
"And the boy—what is it, Ron? Oh..." Ron was pulling faces and pointing to Josh, obviously realizing what Tara had been remembering. Josh was oblivious.  
  
"And yes, I did purchase a Harry Potter Fan Club journal. Don't ask."  
  
"All right. And the last one was you talking to Ron."  
  
"Yeah. Don't know why that showed up."  
  
"Mm," said Ron indifferently.  
  
"So..." Josh said.  
  
"Oh, yeah. Dumbledore said we share a birthday and our parents died at exactly the same moment," Tara told them.  
  
Harry added, "And we share some kind of ancient power."  
  
"Strange," Hermione said. "If you've been connected for over seventeen years, how come you've only met once?"  
  
"Maybe they're long-lost twins or something!" Ron put in enthusiastically.  
  
"Don't be an idiot," Hermione told him.  
  
"We can't be related, Ron," Harry said as they continued down the hallway. "Remember what McGonagall said last year? She told us that when Dumbledore brought me to the Dursleys, he said they were the only family I have left, now."  
  
"Oh, yeah," Ron said sheepishly. "I forgot about that."  
  
"I guess Hermione could stay in our room, huh, Tara?" Natalie said, changing topics at the speed of light. "But where will Harry and Ron stay?"  
  
All eyes turned to Josh, and Tara knew he was feeling as she had, like they were boring holes in him.  
  
"Aw, all right. Keep your hair on," he consented.  
  
When they reached Josh's room, Harry's and Ron's trunks were already there.  
  
"Dumbledore," Harry guessed.  
  
The girls said goodbye to them there, and Natalie and Tara led Hermione to their room, where her trunk was waiting for them too.  
  
Natalie expertly conjured up an extra bed, and she and Hermione fell asleep presently. But Tara's thoughts and memories chased themselves around her head, keeping her awake.  
  
Why were she and Harry connected like this? Why had she never met him before? Why did Harry have to see all her memories, including the ones about the other children making fun of her? And why had her conversation with Ron popped up in those memories?  
  
These thoughts kept her awake until she realized how tired she was, and then she fell asleep. 


	3. Departure

Chapter 3  
  
Departure  
  
The next morning, Tara woke up to the sunlight streaming through the open window on her face. Blinking against the bright light, she vaguely wondered why the window was open. Then she noticed Harry. In her bedroom. She shrieked.  
  
"What?" he said, looking around at her.  
  
"W—what are you doing here?"  
  
"The Witches got me out of bed really early and told me a bunch of what Dumbledore said to them. Then they said to send an owl to the Order."  
  
"Order?"  
  
"Oh, sorry, I forgot. You don't know. The Order of the Phoenix is a resistance group against Voldemort. Ron's parents and older brothers are in it, my friend Remus Lupin, a bunch of Aurors...you know, everybody who wanted to join."  
  
"Do you know Percy?" Tara blurted out. Great, she thought. What else am I going to let slip?  
  
"Why? Do you know Percy?" Harry asked, eyes narrowing suspiciously.  
  
"Well, not really. I...guess I better explain about the Harry Potter Fan Club journal, huh?"  
  
"If it'll explain how you know who Percy is."  
  
Tara breathed deeply. "Okay, um...Do you know Natalie McDonald?"  
  
"Yeah. She's a fourth-year, isn't she?"  
  
"Yes, she is. Well, she has a Harry Potter Fan Club journal, too."  
  
"Mm-hmm."  
  
"And we can have conversations through it."  
  
He turned grim. "What, you've had her spy on me?"  
  
"Not in the complete sense of the word...well, yes, you could put it that way."  
  
He remained silent, so Tara continued.  
  
"And she had an older sister, who was friends with Bill, so she knows all about the Weasleys, and I wanted to know about your best friends. So...yeah. I just wanted to know if Percy was in the Order, because from what she told me, he's not the brave sort of person."  
  
Harry's face turned wistful and angry at the same time, as if he were remembering a horrible memory. "No, he said at last, bitterly and with spite. "For a while, the Ministry of Magic denied that Voldemort—what?"  
  
"Nothing," Tara said quickly. She couldn't help wincing at a name so evil.  
  
"They denied he was back at all. Of course, Percy's ambition was to support the Ministry in any way possible, and he moved out. Well, when the Ministry finally came to their senses, Percy pretended it was his family that had believed Voldemort to still be gone, and...no, he never joined the Order."  
  
"Oh." What else was there to say?"  
  
"Yeah."  
  
"Where are Natalie and Hermione?" Tara asked.  
  
"I don't know. Even if it is Saturday, I don't know too many people who sleep until eleven."  
  
"Is it eleven?" she cried, jumping out of bed.  
  
"Yes," he replied, urging his white owl out the window.  
  
Just then, Ron came in and stopped dead. "Why are you still in your nightclothes?"  
  
"I just woke up," Tara answered him, grabbing some clothes and hurrying into the bathroom. "You two better not come in here, got it?"  
  
"Mmm," Ron replied, concentrating on the owl's disappearing figure.  
  
* * *  
  
Once Tara had changed, she led Harry and Ron down to the dining room, where she was able to snatch a piece of fruit from the containers that were being packed away. Harry found Hermione from across the room, and the three of them went to go talk to her. Once they sat down, however, Tara noticed that she could be intruding on their best friend privacy, so she stood up to leave.  
  
"Where're you going?" Ron asked blankly.  
  
"I dunno. To find Natalie, maybe."  
  
"Tara," Hermione said bluntly, "stay. Anything we're going to talk about has everything to do with you."  
  
"Thanks," Tara told her sincerely, sitting back down again.  
  
I hate these awkward lulls, Tara thought after a few silent seconds. "So..." she said, but it was more of an exhalation than actual speech.  
  
"Yes, well, um..." Hermione tried.  
  
Ron said the most obvious thing any of them could have said: "So, Harry, what do you want to talk about?"  
  
Harry chuckled, Hermione giggled, and Tara laughed aloud.  
  
"Something that's happened in the past twenty-four hours," Harry replied with a grin.  
  
"How about that dream?" Hermione suggested in a lower tone.  
  
"Or what really happened," Harry reminded her.  
  
"Yeah. How could I be there when I was here?" Tara asked.  
  
Hermione looked around at the three of them. "Well, it says in Hogwarts, A History..."  
  
"Would you cut it out with the stupid book?" Ron bellowed. Many people looked at him.  
  
"It says that Hogwarts is protected by anti-Disapparation spells at Hogwarts. That's why you had to find your way through the forest before you could leave... But what about you, Tara? The Institute has got to have the same protection..."  
  
"No," Tara said. Ron and Harry stared until she continued, "I've...I've read The History of the Institute."  
  
Ron gawked.  
  
"We don't have those protective spells. Don't know why."  
  
"Well! That explains a lot," Hermione breathed, sitting back in her seat. "But where'd the thestral come from?"  
  
"Maybe it was a sign," Harry suggested, casting a furtive glance at Hermione. "Of what's to come now me and Tara are in the same place. Maybe we'll see someone die."  
  
Tara coughed suddenly, and it took five minutes and a glass of water before she could stop. And for once, Ron was the one with the understanding light in his eyes.  
  
Tara, embarrassed, looked at Harry, who seemed to be willing all his courage to say something. Hermione noticed, too. "Harry, are you all right?"  
  
"Hermione, can I tell you something? Somewhere else?" he said, not really answering her question.  
  
"Um, sure." She followed suit in standing up, but Ron stopped Harry.  
  
"Wait, Harry, read this later," he said, handing him a ball of paper.  
  
"Okay," Harry said, confused. "C'mon, Hermione."  
  
Tara and Ron waited until Harry and Hermione were out in the hallway, and then Ron pulled out an ear connected to a long, fleshy piece of string that was presumably attached to the wad of paper that he had given Harry.  
  
"My older brothers' invention. Extendable Ears," Ron said quickly before the jammed their ears onto the extendable one.  
  
"Hermione, I have to tell you something," Harry was saying.  
  
"Yes, Harry?" Hermione answered, her voice trembling slightly.  
  
"Hermione, I should have told you last year after...after what happened...but I was afraid...Hermione, I've liked you ever since you stood up for us when we battled that troll and...and...I've always been afraid to tell you. And something that might happen...Tara said she saw the thestral, too...it might be my last battle against Voldemort. Tara might be the one to defeat him after he gets his revenge on me."  
  
Tara and Ron were silent. So, too, was Hermione.  
  
"Hermione, say something."  
  
"No, no, I was just thinking," Hermione said.  
  
"What else is new?" Ron muttered under his breath.  
  
"How many times have I tried to get up the courage to tell you that I feel the same way?"  
  
Tara held her breath in excitement.  
  
"Oh—"  
  
Hermione had let out a little yelp of delight, and Tara and Ron could hear no words but some other sound in the background.  
  
"They're making out!" Tara squeaked.  
  
"Huh?" Ron said, clueless.  
  
"Kissing!" Tara said exasperatedly.  
  
"Oh, yeah," Ron said. "I wondered when they'd be getting around to it."  
  
Their eardrums were shattered by a piercing scream, which emanated from the Ear in Ron's hand. Ron turned a ghastly pale hue.  
  
"Hermione!" he hissed.  
  
Together, Tara and Ron shot through the doors that Harry and Hermione had gone through only a few minutes before, only to find the hallway deserted.  
  
"Harry?" Ron yelled.  
  
"Hermione!" Tara shrieked.  
  
Other students were starting to stare. Tara grabbed Ron's arm. "We've got to go the Witches. Now."  
  
Ron followed Tara through the maze of staircases and halls. Dashing through crowds of excited students, into secret passages, and—  
  
"Oof!"  
  
—bumping into Natalie.  
  
"What's the matter?" Natalie cried, seeing the looks on their faces. Josh, at her shoulder, looked vaguely concerned.  
  
"Come on! Harry and Hermione are gone!"  
  
Josh pulled a blank face. "Wha—" But Natalie was already two feet ahead of him, and she already had hold of his arm. The four of them hurdled down a hall toward a door. But before they could reach it, it opened.  
  
"Children?"  
  
"They're gone—"  
  
"—aren't they?"  
  
"Yes," Tara panted to the Salem Witches.  
  
"We were afraid this would happen."  
  
"This isn't good."  
  
"Now you'll be pulled to him."  
  
"What?" Natalie said in disbelief.  
  
"Now that they know of each other—"  
  
"—and don't hate each other—"  
  
"—they'll be drawn together always until Voldemort is defeated."  
  
Ron cringed, but Tara was beyond caring. "You mean I'm going to disappear and go where he—ow!"  
  
"What?" Ron asked concernedly.  
  
"Ow, it hurts," Tara moaned, almost doubled over in pain.  
  
"Tara! Your feet!" Natalie shrieked, pointing.  
  
It took all her strength to look at her feet, and she almost passed out. Her feet were gone, and her ankles were going with them.  
  
"You three better go with her."  
  
"Grab a body part."  
  
"Good luck."  
  
Josh laid a hand on one of her shoulders, Natalie took the other, and Ron held her hand. The pain became worse and worse, and just when Tara thought she would succumb, they were whirling in a rush of colors to an unknown destination. 


End file.
